hackancestry
by Wingshad0w
Summary: When the RA plan failed it's real objectives, 8 other avatars, got released into the world.  Now some time later things are beginning to come to a head in the GU time period of .hackroots
1. Chapter 1

.Hack//Ancestry –The beginning

The long awaited sequel to Jyotaro's RA

Disclaimer – none of this junk is mine. Or ever has a chance of becoming mine. So don't think I got any big ideas about making it mine.

This is the main fic for Jyotaro's RA. This will focus on Jyotaro's eight epitaphs but will include the GU characters, especially Ovan. Ovan will do a lot here. Also the other eight epitaphs will be featured constantly in serious parts with the main, main character. The secondary main character will be with GU characters, non epitaph largely, on a more comedic/not so serious basis. Also ancestry occurs during Roots, so what happens here will be roots related. Involving roots time events, hopefully from all canon GU media. Well here goes!

Oh and for time, this starts the day after Jyotaro's RA part two the dialogue between seraph and Ovan. IE episode one of roots, the very, very beginning of rebirth.

Credit goes to m00tzman for beta reading the junk I send him.

Note – Italics thought

-Begin-

A character walked around the field. Muttering things to himself, "Stupid Ovan, tells me to start up the largest guild in the game the next day, this may take months to do!" The player wore green pants, with a yellow vest like shirt. He had darker skin with scars criss-crossing it. His body showed a muscular build. He also wore a headband of an off white color. And he had two gold bracelets on his arms with unrecognizable patterns.

He kept on walking, finally running into a group of enemies. They were some level one goblins, but since the player was also level 1 and he was outnumbered three to one the player had a problem. But he took out his weapon, a drill like lance, and prepared to fight anyway.

"Die you stupid goblin bastards!" He shouted as he smashed in one's face. That goblin fell over. The other two ran over to it checking to see if it was okay. "Ha, you may have superior numbers, but I'm the better fighter." Then the injured goblin got back up. "What the hell! That bastard ought to stay down!" Then the three goblins surrounded the level one player.

"Great you guys form a triangle. Well time for the skill trigger. Take this! He said shouting at the injured goblin, "Air raid!" The player stuck the goblin on his lance and shot him in the air. Before the goblin hit the ground the player lanced him once again. The goblin faded away in red. The player then turned to face the other two goblins, which were already dead. "Thanks you guys," The player started to say when the two players, another lance wielder and a flick reaper, armed with a scythe moved to attack the solo player. The harvest cleric of the group just stood to the side and watched ready to heal. The player about to be attacked just prepared to use his lance tensing up, when three shots were heard. Then the three Pk'ers fell to the ground. No HP left to speak of.

"Gunshots. A steam gunner, probably a high level one too." The player looked up to a hill where a man with blue hair, orange glasses, and a strange left arm was standing bearing a weapon that could be called a gun blade. "Ovan. I figured. Well he's accompanying me the rest of the way to the beast temple; I do not want to deal with more Pk'ers. Hey Ovan!" The last part was directed directly towards the character on the hill. "Get over here, I'm supposed to meet the person you want today in this field right?" The player grinned when Ovan showed a sign of shock at the revelation that someone knew what he was doing but then shook his head in some realization. In a small amount of time Ovan was by the player.

"Ah, so you chose a new player model."

"Still an adept rogue, but looks different."

"So what do I call you?"

"You can call me benitora."

"Ah. Well then benitora, come I want you to see the player I wanted to show you, then I want you to see who I want you to follow." The two walked a ways ahead, when they encountered a black adept rogue with a blade brandier and edge punisher with him. "The black one is the one I am interested in."

"Haseo." Muttered benitora. "I'll watch him especially hard if you are interested in him."

Ovan chuckled. He knew just what benitora was thinking. "Oh come now, do you think what Jun told you was accurate?"

"It was close enough to count. Well now I know what your pet looks like, I would like to see mine."

"Ah yes, he should be arriving in Mac anu soon. You should go finish this field and meet him."

Benitora looked at him. "Meet him. You seem like the type to make grander plans than that."

"Well train him, make him strong. I'll tell you if I want more. You can use him to your hearts content though if you want to get a head start on your guild."

Benitora nodded. Well fair enough, I'll go to the chaos gate and meet this kid. And when I meet you and Arche Koelyn falls I'll report to you what matters." Benitora and Ovan walked to the blue orb surrounded by gold rings. "Well good luck in your ventures, may I crush them one day." Benitora bowed. And turned around. Ovan walked into the beast temple, two shots were heard. Benitora had a blue light come over him and he popped into the blue orb and was gone.

-In Mac anu-

Benitora appeared in the central area of Mac anu. He walked over to the save counter and saved. Then he sat down on a raised platform and waited. He waited for about three minutes when someone appeared. He had red hair tied back in a ponytail. He wore a plaid kimono of green and black, and a blue shirt. Benitora did not like how he looked but he looked that way. Also his face had a cross shaped scar on his left cheek. Benitora was not surprised at this. He stepped up to the obvious n00b.

"Greetings!" Someone said, it wasn't benitora. It was a random player who had appeared. "I'm tomoe. Are you new?" Tomoe wore a long purple kimono and had long hair. Also she had an absurd round hat on in the same color as her clothes. "I am, I was wondering if you wanted to form a party with me."

Benitora knew it would be easiest to do this early on so he would intervene now! "Ah greetings, Tomoe, Kenshin. Are you both new?" Both of them nodded. "Ah good, because I am an experienced player. Would you like me to show you the ropes?" Again both of them nodded. "Good why don't we try going to an area. Do you know how?" Yet another nod. "Well then here's bookmark I happen to have, for a low level area good for the three of us." Benitora input the area words. _I hope Ovan didn't set us up to be caught by Pk'ers. If he did so help me god, either he Haseo or his guild will be caught in a living hell._ Was his thought.

Upon arrival at the field kenshin spoke. "Um excuse me, but why are you helping me?"

"Because, I believe that everyone in this game who wants help deserves it."

"And you Tomoe?"

"Well because I need it almost as much as you, I'm a low level harvest cleric. I won't be able to solo very well for a while yet. Besides staying in a group is the best way to avoid Pk's."

"P what's?" Kenshin asked.

"Player killers, players who attack other players." Tomoe elaborated.

"Oh. God why did I pick this game."

"Because all the rest are worse." Benitora laughed. "Trust me, Pk's will be a small matter with me in your party. Which reminds me, you need my member address!" Benitora gave kenshin his member address. "Anytime I'm on send me a message and I'll see if I can do anything."

Kenshin looked at benitora. And stared for a few minutes. The nodded to himself. "Alright let's go."

The trio wandered around the field for a while, and then they encountered a monster, rather a trio of goblins. "Alright kenshin, if you get near them without them seeing you, and press the attack button, you can do a sneak attack, which will do a lot more damage than a regular attack." There was a moment of pause, "Well go!"

Kenshin glared at benitora. Benitora just went to tomoe and explained how to cast repth, and when. Then kenshin finally did a sneak attack. The goblin fell over, dead. Benitora gaped openly at this, tomoe looked glad and kenshin barely noticed. Kenshin landed several, much closer to normal, hits on the goblins and then they were surrounded by rings. Kenshin prepared a charge attack to take out the goblin when benitora intervened with an air raid. "You took my kill, you jerk!"

Benitora looked at kenshin. "Kills only matter against PK's it's more important to land rengeki's for the dual damage and experience bonuses."

While kenshin opened the treasure box with the symbol fragment tomoe asked benitora a question. "Why were so surprised when kenshin killed the goblin in one hit? I mean it was a sneak attack against a level 1 monster."

"Yeah, but he's a level one player, in this game players should not be able to take out monsters of their level in one hit. Unless it's an awakening. Especially a divine awakening that I can see. But this was just a sneak attack. I'm really interested in this player." Benitora grinned a knowing grin. "I know someone else who should be interested to." He said more to himself than anyone else, but Tomoe still heard. Tomoe heard and remembered.

The party ventured along, all the while attacking whatever enemies came their way, letting tomoe learn how a harvest cleric operates, kenshin knew how to fight already, so only some reminders based on game physics were thrown his way. And then they reached the beast temple. They opened the door and walked in, one the way they started talking about how to divide the treasure. "If its light armor or a staff tomoe gets it, if it's medium armor or a blade kenshin gets it, heavy armor or a lance I get it. Any scrolls will be given to Tomoe; otherwise you guys can divide up what you find."

"Why do you get heavy armor or lances?" Kenshin asked with a suspicious glare.

"Because only I use those. You would have no use for them." Benitora grinned back.

Tomoe was smarter with her questions, "Why are you letting us have this stuff?"

"Because, this character is only a temporary character to me, I have another one who will become my main character." But you know it's good to know what stuff is in what areas. So I can plan ahead."

"What do you mean by plan ahead; don't people usually have high level character then make a new one?" That was kenshins last question when static appeared.

-Brzzt-brzzt-

"What was that!?!" Tomoe said, sounding scared.

"What the hell is going on here!?!" Kenshin shouted at Benitora.

"How do I think I would know that!?!" Benitora shouted back.

-Brzzt-brzzt-

"It's still here, now's not the time to argue guys!" Tomoe shouted. Then black dots appeared right in front of the three. Out of which came a strange thing. It looked like a massive amoeboid.

"I'll take it on!" Shouted kenshin. Benitora pulled out his lance and stopped him. "Come one the two of us doing what we did before, we could beat it. Even if it's a PK'er."

"I had no idea how dumb you are." Kenshin raged at benitora. "That's no near possibly standard character model. For that matter it's not even hacked, if it was it would never have attacked us. It would be gone by now, players would have reported it to the admins. and it would have been deleted. This is here; it's not a normal bug." _Jun, I'll join you soon. But this thing is going down before that happens. _"So I'll take it on." Benitora turned to face the two players, and then a blue orb appeared in front of his head. His turned at a greater than forty five degree angle head. He didn't see it fully, but he heard a note. "A note. What was that, I should know with what musical talent I have." Benitora turned to face the monster. When he saw a strange figure in front of him.

The figure was tall and lanky. He wore red clothes that looked in a state of general disrepair. His eyes, or rather eye, looked cold and soulless. And most unique were the blue flames that surrounded him. The black amoeboid retreated back from it slightly. Then the figures right arm glowed gold. An eye shot out of the glowing arm and hit the black blob. Streams of data shot back to the glowing arm. The black blob writhed and shrank until it finally turned into nothing.

A few moments passed, kenshin and tomoe were on their knees in fear. Benitora was ready to fight whoever it was that had appeared. Although he seemed reluctant to do so. The red figure was floating, and that was all he was doing.

After a few minutes benitora balanced his lance on his shoulder. "Thanks a lot, um, um, whoever you are." He extended a hand and looked back at his party. Kenshin and tomoe leant back. Kenshin backed into tomoe after a few seconds. Tomoe fell on her back and she lay there looking at the enigmatic figure. "Okay. Wimps." Benitora muttered. He stared at the flaming blue fellow. He hadn't moved, but his arm had stopped glowing. Then the player rounded on the Benitora, who still had his lance out, while he was bearing his twin blades. Benitora had seemed to flicker when his lance met the blades. "Now that's not nice." He said, now at a full lance length.

The enigmatic figure stared at him, as if pondering what to do. Benitora grinned; kenshin and tomoe were recovering at last, and seemed to be ready to fight, or at least more so. Then the figure turned into a blue ball and floated away.

"Who was that?" Asked tomoe.

"I'm not certain." Replied benitora as he put away his lance and proceeded to the chest.

"Are you nuts, whatever that blob was we know it was there, how can you say the item wasn't changed!" Kenshin shouted.

Benitora kicked the chest open a little more forcefully than necessary. "Well if it was then it looks like I'll be the only one to take it then. Hey, it's heavy armor, I'll take it anyway."

"Have you forgotten about the blob that attacked us!?!" Tomoe shouted.

"Fine then, you can leave if you want, I showed you how to play, and we got through this temple. We survived the blob, and the lanky one, the far worse one. Just when you go, tell no-one what happened."

"Are you nuts, I'm telling and Admin!"

"And then what, you will be dissected until they get the information they want, and odds are your character will be no good, your account a danger to the network. Don't tell anyone, not even other players. Only tell those who I allow to be brought into our confidence. And don't worry I'll tell the admins, I have connections with CC corp."

"WHAT!" Kenshin flared. "Are you mad, tell no-one! Something like this should be told to everyone to keep them safe!"

Benitora sighed, "Or it could send them into panic. Trust me; you'll get your chance to spread your tale. And I'll make sure it comes out the right way at the right speed so the internet doesn't fall apart." _Damn you Ovan, damn you to hell you bastard. How much of this did you lay your heavy hand in?_ "I'll make sure that our characters weren't affected through the bug in some way. I'm a programmer so don't worry."

Finally when the trio warped back to Mac anu kenshin had something to say to benitora, "Are you Japanese?"

"No, why?"

"That explains why your Japanese sucks so much."

"WHAT, YOU LITTLE PUNK, I'LL KILL YOU!!!"

-End-


	2. Chapter 2

.Hack//Ancestry – friends and connections

The long awaited sequel to chapter 1

And yes, this is sort of a kenshin cross over, but hey I'm not really classifying it as one. It's just people basing character loosely off characters from series they've seen in the past and liked.

Credit goes to m00tzman for beta reading the junk I send him.

-Begin-

The red haired samurai looking character wandered about the town of Mac anu. A root town with various streets alley ways and canals. As well as a bridge, a bridge with a permanent resident. One that was short brown and had a tail. He talked to people, about anything, the weather, rumors, life. Today he was talking to a real character. And that being in the most unusual sense. The character called himself, Zanza, "the fight merchant", if a thing like that was really successful in the game. Especially for a n00b player, and at that especially for an adept rogue.

He wore a grey tight jacket. With a robe belt around his waist. He was an edge punisher with the rare weapon 'zanbato' as his weapon. He was actually pretty good with it. But still he had yet to earn the title he had given himself. It was a rather pointless title, since no-one would respect it, and he didn't look it. He had a smile on his face at all times. And he was extremely energetic. One thing he did was look for defense boosting items; he said it was in respect to his model, the character from an anime.

But today Zanza was not a fight merchant. He was just another guy talking to the man on a bridge, phyllo.

"Ah Zanza, you do tend to show up often don't you." Said the fat tu-tribe harvest cleric.

"Yeah life as a fight merchant in an MMORPG tends to be tough and makes you lose. Yes I know I do need to level up a bit before I really stand a chance, but I still want to find the first two guys who I fought, in the lost ground of Hulle Granz cathedral."

"Ah yes, 'the wolf of mibu' saito, and 'the oshakira oniwabanashu omnitsu' Aoshi. I still find it strange that the two of them were meeting together. And at a lost ground too. A cathedral lost ground. What an odd coincidence. I wonder what they were meeting for."

"What do you mean meeting for? Aren't they just two guys who were good friends a while back?" Zanza asked.

"They never were ever real good friends, and since they both became guild masters of powerful guilds, the shishengumi and the Oniwabanashu omnitsu their relation has become more strained in the game. Honestly it's a miracle that it was only the two of them there and not them and their whole guild."

Zanza looked at phyllo, "Well gee I guess I am lucky. I suppose I should watch out for those two from now on though, eh?" Zanza looked at the river, "What can you tell me about those guilds of theirs?"

"Well I know only a few things for certain. The Oniwabanashu omnitsu are very secretive, but similar to TaN in their functions. They carry information and items, and also do contract Pk'ings. It's said that they can control more of the PK network than Kestrel."

"That's a lot of PK's." Zanza muttered. "So they're a cross between TAN and kestrel?"

"I could understand why you want to think that way, to say the least, just they aren't wild like kestrel but they have the brute force."

"Now what about those shishengumi?"

"The shishengumi. They have about 300 members. They are a group committed to order, and have a contract of sorts with CC corp. in the pursuit of data anomalies. There are ten units. You're good friend saito is the third unit captain. Man to man the shishengumi are far better than the Oniwabanashu, who's actual guild strength is no more that 200. But the Oniwabanashu's strength is their drawing on the PK network."

"So what do you say I do to avoid getting caught in a dual guild assault on my ass?"

"You have two options. Simply avoid them as best you can." Phyllo looked at Zanza who, still looking at the river, spat, "Or join a guild. Preferably a strong one."

"I've been hearing something about a guild called the twilight brigade, what do you know about them."

Then a black adept rogue character walked up to Phyllo. "I know a lot, are you thinking of joining."

"I want to join some guild. Don't care which as long as my butt is covered."

"Why not join the twilight brigade. I think someone like you would be appreciated by Ovan. But just tell me what you think of the guild after you join."

"Why, aren't you a member?"

"No." Sighed the rogue, "But thanks to Ovan and TaN I'm gonna have to join a guild soon."

"What's your name?"

"Haseo, yours?"

"Call me Zanza, the fight merchant."

"Fight merchant, what kind of role play is that?"

"One based out of a manga from a few years ago. I like it, so shut up and accept that."

"I'm sorry to interrupt Haseo, but some of Zanza's 'buddies' are here and it would be wise for Zanza to leave." Phyllo nodded to one side of the bridge where a group of people dressed in blue were wandering towards the spot where the three of them were situated, eyes fixated on someone.

Zanza just turned into the road and walked away without missing a beat. "I wonder why they wanted him." Haseo asked phyllo.

"I'm not sure, but if they want to follow him into a root town then that's they're business and their alone. So Haseo, how's you're pursuit of knowledge in relation to Ovan coming along?"

And phyllo and Haseo talked about events that were important to the two of them.

Meanwhile Zanza was walking around Mac anu avoiding three men in blue coats who were clearly stalking the man in grey. "Jees those guys really don't like me, but how come, I mean all I did was visit a lost ground. Players do that all the time. If they wanted a more secret meeting place then they should have picked a secluded area." Then the distracted Zanza bumped into a red headed samurai like character. "Hey watch where you're going punk!" He shouted.

"Oh I'm sorry." Said the red head samurai without meaning or trying to sound the part of caring. "Do you know about a character named phyllo? I'm looking for him."

"Yeah, but I just left the guy because someone wanted to find me, probably dead."

"Well point me in the right way. I'll find him eventually."

Zanza looked at the fellow, "He's at the bridge on the way to the harbor. At the highest point. Now go, I've got to get out of here." Zanza ran off willing to do anything to lose the men in blue, willing to anything and anything else to lose anyone who was less obvious who happened to be trailing him. Phyllo had said the Oniwabanashu had access to more of the PK network than the 5,000 man largely PK and PKK kestrel. That was a fact to be worried about. Odds are they had access to whole of the network of Pk'ers in guilds. Either that or every independent one and the several they had in their guild. Those were more dangerous, they didn't wear uniforms to advertise their presence.

Kenshin ran towards the bridge in time to see a black rogue finish talking with the infamous 'teddy bear of Mac anu'. He ignored the adept rogue. What was more important was the man with information. "Hello there." Said the bladebrandier without missing a step. He had been told about Phyllo from other people, but he wanted to seem like he was just there because he was there. Not because he had gone out of his way to get there, but just because he was there.

"Greetings. Who are you?"

"I'm kenshin, yourself?"

"They call me phyllo. But I have little doubt you came here knowing who I was and what I do." Kenshin fell over with a small grade dust and debris explosion. "Was I that close to the mark." Phyllo muttered to himself without turning. "Well I won't turn you away if that's what you're worried about. I'll listen before I do that."

Kenshin looked at the river over the side of the bridge. "Oh. Well, you see I met this player a few days ago, he's an American and he says he knows about a big guild that's going to form in this server soon. He says it's called Keel. He says that there will be over 200 members to start with. But also he says someone named Ovan wants me in the twilight brigade, he says I should join." Kenshin looked at phyllo. "I want to know if you know anything about Ovan, Keel, the twilight brigade, or the player behind keel, someone named seraph."

Phyllo's eyes widened at that. A player, one at level 150, had come to him the day before saying just what would happen. He had told him about himself and keel, but then mentioned that neither keel nor the twilight brigade were exclusive guilds and Ovan was very interested in kenshin. He said put any twist on it he cared for, get kenshin in the brigade. Keel to if possible, but he wasn't in a rush for that part, he already was scouting all the players out. Kenshin was just another in the line, an important one, but still he had a replacement lined up for himself.

-The day before-

"Well hello there." A character said, he wore and unbuttoned jacket. And grey pants. "I have something I want you to try and do with someone who will come to see you soon." The man also had a plain white shirt. And two gold bracelets. "He will be a red haired blade brandier. With a blue plaid kimono and a blue shirt." The man turned around to face the street; there were holes in his jacket. "I want you to try and convince him to join the twilight brigade. And, if you can, the guild keel. It's a new guild, not yet really on this server. But it will exist soon, heck it may exist later today. If you can, your priority is to make him join the twilight brigade. If, is always key. Don't' force yourself especially not with keel." The player stuck his hand on his head and laughed.

"Keel, I've heard of a lot of guilds during my time here, but not that one."

"Well that's to be expected, at best it's just small guild, with less that 20 members easily. At worst it doesn't exist. At least in this server, today. But internationally Keel is a massive guild with over 200,000 members in all the various servers, including us, Mexico, china, Norway, Europe, etcetera. It is guild devoted to helping. It also deals in information, and it also is guild that uses the PK system to the extent it was created for, and, hopefully, rarely more. Also there are special divisions that gather the idea hopefuls who make mini guilds, guild clubs we call them, and go off with a set objective."

"What don't you do?"

"Well… Um… I'm not sure. Honestly the international server Keel is at almost 10,000 members, it's a miracle we only do that much."

"So why haven't you set up a keel guild here? You sound like the type to not let anything this major ever happen."

The character next to him laughed loudly. He leant his head back and just laughed up-roariously. He couldn't stop laughing for some time. Finally when he was done he answered the question, "Tell me, there are over 80 national and multi national servers in the world. How long do you think it takes me to establish a guild, stabilize and re-stabilize whenever issues in the guild get hairy and there's fighting."

"Probably a couple of months."

"No one. Well the re-stabilizing takes longer, but hey."

"But that's impossible, the world has only been out for little more than a year, no-one can do all that."

"Well I have a lot less work in some places than others. In the international server the guild was at over 1,000 members in a day. Then I just got a few people to go from server to server and start up more keels."

"Really and what are you doing all this while."

"Administrating, working, guiding, establishing, re-establishing. Actually the last only three times. In guilds like keel almost all in guild fighting occurs player on player. Just my self vs. the wanna-be leader. Of course I have had three full blow rebellions. These had to have been put down. The only thing is I don't understand why. Each server was very focused and loyal. Why all of the sudden they would fight what had been set for o so long is beyond me."

"I would think there would be a traitor."

"Well duh. I wonder about those who wouldn't turn traitor. Unless some guy gave hundreds of random people with grudges access keys and let the run loose." He laughed again. "That is unlikely, but still the most probable thing I can find."

"Well I'm not one for combat."

"True. But you are one for information, if not an official dealer you still deal with mountains every day by sitting here."

"Well I have a question."

"Yes."

"Why do want this player in the twilight brigade. I really doesn't sound like an all that amazing guild to me."

"Because, a player I know wanted me to watch him, but I'm too lazy, so now he'll be watching him himself." "I hope." The character added on pitifully.

"One last thing. Just so I can remember. What is your name?"

"I am the main admin for the international server, the first to beat the one sin. Called the next descendent of fianna by some. But those are titles positions and events. My name is seraph, plain and simple. And…" suddenly wings spread out from his back, "I want to see what Ovan is planning my own way."

Phyllo looked at the player oddly, and then he took flight. The back draft almost knocked half the players on the bridge away. A few curses were shouted. But then people either, a) recognized the player as the international guild master of the strongest guild in many other servers or b) realized that he most likely the only player in the game with wings. It seemed to just be fore effect, but then he went under the bridge from the side that phyllo was on. Everyone crowded around phyllo. And for a few moments various limbs stuck out from under the bridge. Then they stopped appearing. After a while when people began to say he logged out there was a shadow across the bridge. "The guild keel is welcoming members; go to the central square of Mac anu to learn more about it." With that last odd guild endorsing message the player was off.

And then the rumors people had been hearing flew around Phyllo's animal like ears.

'Wasn't that the player seraph, the one who beat the one sin on his own and the first one to do so in the game?'

'I hear that he's the leader of some massive guild. Rumor has it that he's assembling as many players in the game as possible as if he's preparing for something.'

'A player like seraph preparing for the 'last battle''

'Did you see that guy he had wings!'

And many other things, but he learned the name of the fellow. Seraph. The guild master of one of the largest guilds in the whole game. What could a player like that be thinking when coming to him? And how was a player like that related to Ovan.

-Present-

Phyllo's thoughts eclipsed but a few short moments which kenshin took as pondering time. "Well I can't tell you all that much about keel, but, the twilight brigade I can tell you something about."

"Tell me, please."

"Oh don't worry about me, if I said I know something I plan on telling you whatever it is I know." Kenshin looked at him odd. "I'm and advice giver, not an information broker, so I may not always know what you want, and I will rarely go out of the way to find the information for you, but I will tell you what I know."

"Oh, I didn't know that, you sounded like an information broker from what I heard from the people and forums. Or something similar to it."

"Well now that we've got that straight let me tell you what I know about the twilight. The twilight brigade is a small guild. Run by the character Ovan, which I would assume you already know. Its goal is to look for the key to the twilight. A mythical item that is said to grant the user one wish. I can't tell you much about the key of the twilight; most of what I know are forum fairy tales, but I can tell you this, Ovan carries and absolute belief it exists. And thus his guild searches around in order to find any proof that the thing exists and will follow almost any rumor. To warn you, any time spent in the world is essentially time devoted to the brigade. And that's about all I know about the brigade."

"Number of members."

"I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, but no more than a handful."

"Okay. What do you know about Ovan?"

"Ovan. Ovan, Ovan, Ovan. Not a whole lot. I do know that he's quite the eccentric. From what I've seen of him online he spends extended periods of time on and offline. I believe that that is based on his job, whatever that may be. When he's offline shino becomes the acting guildmaster. She is very capable at that to say the least. Otherwise I know nothing about guild or guildmaster."

Kenshin sat for a moment in thought. "Thanks a lot. One last question."

"Yes, what is it?"

"Do you know any former guild members?"

"Well I know of two, but I think you'll want to talk to them both."

"Who are they?"

"B-set and Gord"

"Lame set and vegetable."

"Close enough."

"Well where can I meet any of them?"

"Honestly I haven't the faintest idea. They just come and go as they please, though I will give them your name if they come by me."

"You will?"

"Yea, hopefully that'll save me an earful from each of them and you." Phyllo said with a noise that could have resembled a vague laugh.

"Alright thanks a lot." Kenshin said before he ran off.

"I wonder where he's heading. And I wonder what Ovan and that player seraph want with him." Phyllo looked after him for a few moments. "Oh well. As of right now that's none of my concern." Then phyllo looked around. "Hm, it's getting a little late, almost time to get to my appointment. Ah well I'll be leaving a little earlier than usual today." Then phyllo skated away leaving the rest of the day to fate.

-Elsewhere-

Kenshin sat in the warp area of Mac anu. Staring at the chaos gate waiting for any number of people to show up. He sat, and sat, and sat. He noted a black adept rogue going off somewhere. But he didn't know why that should catch his attention.

Finally a familiar face showed up. Tomoe arrived in Mac anu but a few moments after the black adept rogue left. Quickly the two formed a party. Then tomoe asked kenshin about the last party member. "We really should get a third party member. Is benitora online?"

"No, and his message when I try to contact him is, 'some people are trying to sleep'."

"Why would he say that, its 4 pm.?"

"He lives in the United States; it's a big time difference between here and there. It doesn't matter where he lives, it's still yesterday there."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"He didn't allude to exactly where, be he said it was on the eastern seaboard." Tomoe nodded to herself. "That means a thirteen hour time difference." Tomoe gaped. "I know. It's a miracle that he was on last time. I was on till about 11 and when I got a moment to talk to him he said he would stay on till roughly 1am Japanese time, about noon for him."

"Wow time difference makes a big deal I suppose. Well what do you want to do for a third member?"

"Well we need some aggressive class. Having two harvest clerics really will mean nothing if we run into PK's or some tough monster. Especially at this low level." The two of them thought. But as of yet neither had anyone save benitora in their member address. They were still talking when a grey colored man game through the chaos gate and ran right into tomoe. "HEY WHAT YOU DO THAT FOR!" Kenshin shouted. He was already seeing Tomoe as his girlfriend and a situation like that was going to prove problems in the future.

"Sorry, I was just chased out of a lost ground by a big group of guys and I was feeling kind of panicked so I just ran to the nearest place where I felt I was safe."

"So that place was her lap?" Kenshin asked, dislike and semi-sarcastic inquisition hard in his voice.

The player looked; he was sitting right in the girls lap. It hadn't been his intention, but it wasn't all that bad either. "Well looks like it." He said with a grin.

"Great first we can't make a full party and now this guy runs into us." Kenshin muttered putting his palm to his forehead.

"A party huh?"

"Yeah what would you care, you seem like a solo player."

"Hardly. I was just soloing to see a lost ground. Usually, usually, there aren't enemies at lost grounds so I figured I could go alone if I wanted too. I was wrong though." The player sighed. "I really do need to level up though. Well I'm willing to give you both my member addresses and go adventuring with you guys."

"Really now." Kenshin leered at the player.

"This nice and all," Tomoe interdicted, "but will you please get OFF OF ME!"

"Oh, I'm still on top of the lady, sorry bout' that." He got up and even pulled up Tomoe. "Well how about it, I'm here and I'm willing."

"What class are you?"

"Well technically I'm and adept rogue, but I am using edge punisher as my primary class."

"Okay, I'll take it." Kenshin finally relented.

"Great, my name is Zanza; I plan to take the title of fight merchant." Zanza clapped kenshin and tomoe very hard on each of their backs. Both then received a message of having gotten Zanza's member address when they got hit. "So what level are you folks."

"Two." Said the pair.

"Great, I'm level three, so it all works. Then let's go."

-Delta server area-

The party arrived in a dungeon. It was rather plain, but there were characters to be seen further along in the dungeon. A party of them. And they seemed to be bowing to someone. Quickly running forwards to face whomever it was that was a head of them they saw a black, judging by his weapons, twinblade, run away. Confused the trio quickly ran to the right as to escape the fearsome looking players. Quickly they ran into monsters. A large group of onion mashes with their weird plant like bodies appeared. As battle procedures directed kenshin, tomoe and Zanza all drew their weapons. Kenshin started his attack quickly, rushing over to one of the monsters and stabbing it painfully hard with his sword. Zanza went over to another and with a cry of, "Zanza smash", smashed the thing. After a few moments the two retreated and started talking about how close to dead the enemies were.

"I think that one or two more hits will do, and then they're done."

"More than that, I know the level for this area was higher than mine by at least two levels. So it'll take some more hits to kill them but not a whole lot of them though." When the dust finally each monsters hp gauge showed to be near full. Probably the three monsters were missing about 10hp each.

"Are you sure it was only two levels from you?"

"Oh, you know I remember! It was a bookmark I got from the forums. A level nine area actually." Zanza said this with a level of assuredness that one would not expect from him.

"WHAT LEVEL NINE?" Tomoe and kenshin shouted in unison.

"God I don't even have any smoke screens on me." Kenshin muttered.

"And I have almost no fairy's orbs at the moment." Tomoe groaned.

"Um I have a rare weapon."

"WHO CARES ABOUT YOU!" The pair shouted at Zanza once more.

"Okay now what." Kenshin said as his real world hand pressed the guard button tightly.

"I'm not sure." Tomoe replied as she guarded herself to."

"I think we need to re-strategize."

"No, really?" Kenshin muttered sarcastically.

"All right so sue me for stating the obvious!" Zanza growled at the pair. "We could really use some help right now." Zanza muttered to himself.

Then a miracle happened. Cross-hairs appeared on an onion thing. The other onion things looked at the targeted one and screamed or whatever you call the pitiful noise they made. Suddenly a flaming rock fell on one of them. The two remaining looked at the one hit by the rock and screamed and ran around. Then the one with the crosshairs still on it was shot. Then two PC's arrived. One wielding fans the other wielding a bayonet. They immediately began to bash the two monsters that had already been targeted. Finally they were piled on top of each other. One left out a huff and then deflated before they died.

The last one huddled itself in a corner. When five people arrived in front of it. The poor thing was whacked, smacked, sliced, crushed and shot in mid air. When all was said and done and the experience was doled out kenshin, tomoe and Zanza had all leveled up. And once they were done the three wanted to talk to the group saviors.

"Um hi. Thanks for what you did back there."

"No it was nothing." Said the macabre dancer.

"Well saving you guys is a big deal for me, but that's just cause I'm new to the guild." The steam gunner said rubbing the back of his head.

"Really thanks. This idiot here sent us to a level nine area when we're all level two or three. Well three of four now but still." Tomoe said quietly to the macabre dancer.

"Really the guy's an idiot." Kenshin said to the steam gunner.

Zanza glared at the two, "HEY I CAN HEAR YOU!"

"So." The two said emotionlessly.

The macabre dancer intervened before the situation got violent. "So you three are trying to level up."

"Yes." All three responded.

"Would you be willing to continue this dungeon if we stuck with you." The dancer continued.

"Um, why would you do that?"

"Well we're in a guild called Keel. It's a helping guild."

"Helping guild?" Kenshin said sounding suspicious.

"Yes, and don't sound so suspicious. We're not like the 'help section' of Kestrel which will bring you to the end of a dungeon then PK you. Admittedly we do not detest the PK system but we still do not try to abuse it."

"I find this hard to believe."

"Ah well." Sighed the steam gunner. "Let's leave them Chuck. If they don't want our offer of support then we can't force them to let us follow them."

"Barbera!" The character Chuck said. "You may be new but still you seemed eager to join and do this."

"I still am chuck, but the fact is I don't and never wanted to put up with suspicious smart asses that are dumb enough to waltz into a level nine dungeon when they're only level three."

"It wasn't us!" Shouted tomoe and kenshin.

"Whatever. But if you guys aren't willing to accept our help then we really should just leave. I'm level twelve and you're seventeen Chuck. Honestly we'd get no experience from this so why continue if these three don't need our help."

"BARBERA!" This time chuck seemed to really not to like what the other player was saying.

"Face it Chuck if they want to turn away our offer of help then let them face this dungeon on their own. The dungeon with all the monsters and Pk's especially those a few levels higher that prey on the players who come to this area around level seven or so to level up."

Chuck shrugged his shoulders. "You're right if they want to face _all _the _terrible _perils that await them on their own then they can go ahead."

"We'll take your help!" Zanza shouted.

"Well they decided they couldn't handle the peril after all." Barbera said with a grin.

-A few monsters later-

"So why are you guys helping us again?" Zanza asked.

"We're part of what I like to call a 'helping guild'. Basically our job is to help out players. Since the guild is small yet the few patrols we can do usually are about three at a time for the whole guild. And it's rare that we get a harvest cleric, shadow warlock, or macabre dancer in two out of three of them. You're just lucky that one is with this party." Chuck said.

"What guild are you a part of." Zanza kept on asking.

"Keel." Chuck responded.

Kenshin began to splutter. Everyone looked for a few moments then he stopped. Then the conversation had right to continue.

"Keel, they sound familiar. OH YEAH! Weren't they recruiting in the square yesterday?"

"Yeah. That's where Barbera here signed up."

"Really. Now Barbera, why'd join this guild?"

"Well I heard from some of my family in Britain that Keel there was pretty big."

"Whoa, Britain!" Tomoe gasped. "Keel exists there?"

"Yeah." Chuck chuckled. "Keel started in 'the worlds' international server, then the US not much later. From there various members including myself and the original guildmaster as well as over three hundred other players went out and started Keel's in other servers in 'the world.'"

"So Keel is pretty big in Britain then?" Kenshin asked.

"It was till a while ago. There have been three guild feuds. Two were one on one duels between our leader, seraph and other players. Those almost halved the guild from 5,000 people to 2,800. Then there was a plain guild war that cut it in half again. But that was four months ago. As of right now that keel has about 2,000 members. The last major feud was pretty bad; the whole guild risked changing hands until Seraph showed up."

"So this seraph is pretty strong eh?" Zanza asked.

"Oh yeah, there are few players in the whole of 'the world' that could even stand a chance against him. Odds are half support him with every bone in their body."

"You mentioned guild feuds and duels. I know what a guild feud is like but a duel?"

"Well seraph made it as to limit the chance of a feud. Basically it's a one on one match between the leader of one faction that desires control and the established faction. Seraph must be present, participant or not, in order for it to be valid. But he always shows up on time, or pretty dang close."

"Have any of these duels gone in favor of the new group."

"A few times, but usually those are just small within guild groups. Maybe a moderate sized organization. Or a Pk/PKK unit of small size."

"A what or a what?" Tomoe kenshin Zanza and Barbera all asked.

"Keel is generally a helping guild but there are groups within keel that do other things. There are organizations. They act as miniature guilds within guilds. They each pursue their own objectives under keel directive. They actually get their own guild rooms. The Pk/PKK units are groups of hit men. They are elite combat units. We use them to deal with large threats or major conflicts mainly. They rarely participate in within guild feuds if they do though they split more often than not, and change sides, so it becomes a mess. Also keel has the merchant marine. Basically a super effective guild shop. It GP income borders on that of TAN in some servers. Also there are plain old h-units. Which are the base foundations of Keel. They are just all the people who want to be helpers, usually a majority of the guild, who split into groups roughly of 20 apiece and do stuff. Our helping group is eight last time I checked the book, so with Barbera here I think the grand total is nine people. As of yet the JP keel is no more than 30 people, but I think it'll start growing soon."

"Wow that's pretty impressive." Zanza muttered.

"Even I had no idea how well organized this thing is." Barbera said with his mouth gaping open. "And I'm a member."

"Most people don't." Chuck said with a grin on his face. "I only know because I'm an occasional acting guildmaster. I sub in if the two to five people above me, and Seraph, aren't present. As of yet I am the highest administrator in the server, next to seraph."

Some time passed as the party walked. Then Zanza posed a question. "I would assume this seraph character has put his faction's control of a server's keel more than once, right?"

"Yes."

"Has he ever lost?"

"Nope."

"Never."

"Not once?"

"No."

"You're kidding!"

"I'm totally serious."

"Really."

"Yup. I've met the guy personally during the early stages of the international keel. And since then I've remained in constant correspondence with him. He tells me of all major guild affairs, all the places he plans to go, tentative plans, and parts of his real world life. He even has keel conventions; I met him at one of those. Only one, I've never seen him at the other two I've been to."

"Keel conventions? In 'the world,'" Kenshin said, putting 'the world' in quotation marks, "Or the real world?"

"Both. I've been to god knows how many online ones. But three real world ones. Actually," Chuck laughed, "I'm usually the head of those damn conventions. The worst position to be in them. God I've done over fifty duels at those god-damn things. It's a miracle that I've never lost."

"Whoa, you should be higher than level 17 if you've been around that long and dealt with that many duels." Kenshin asked/questioned.

"Yeah, we took a few days to start up keel here so players could emigrate to the JP server. We all needed to make new characters though. Well hey, here's the beast statue. You guys just made it through the dungeon.

"Oh." Kenshin muttered. Zanza went over to the chest and kicked it. He sighed and gave tomoe the light armor inside.

The two players warped away, but not before giving the trio guild passes and an area word, "Grand warrior angel." 'The visitors area' in their words. When asked how they had an area the two said Seraph had connections and would hint at no more.

Finally back in town kenshin looked at the guild key he considered the guild. "Maybe I'll join it. I really can't be sure."

-End-

Yeah a lot of describing crap, but I put it in now so I can avoid it later, after all the first couple of chapters usually describe the universe a fiction tale is set in. Keel is very important to that end of my fan-fiction.


	3. Chapter 3

.Hack//Ancestry – how to play 'the world'

The long awaited sequel to chapter 2

Chapter 3 – how to play 'the world'

Credit goes to m00tzman for beta reading the junk I send him.

Disclaimer, cause I don't know if I've put it in any other chapters: -AHEM- .hack//roots it characters and plot ideas are not mine. The characters of rurouni kenshin are also not mine. Seraph and other keel members are mine. Although I can't say that you never have heard of anyone because half the characters I'm going to make will have some real world basis. Ex chapter 2, chuck is supposed to be a reference to chuck Jones, the animator of bugs bunny. Barbera is the Barbera of Hannah Barbera. They made Scooby doo, if you didn't know. Well yeah, expect jokes like that, if a name sounds familiar copy and paste it into a Google search bar. It's some guy from somewhere who did something odds are.

One more thing, all conversations that take place are in 'Japanese' (yeah Japanese) any conversation in bold is in English.

Italics thought

-Begin-

Kenshin looked at the guild key. It had the image of a ship leaning hard to port and a stabilizing fin underneath sticking out. Keel, the portion of a sailboat that keeps it stable. Although the guildmaster had recognized something called the center of effort as really as important if not more so, to a sailboats performance. And as a joke some guild members changed their names to 'center of effort'. Either one player did it or a group of players used it. It was a terrible joke. But it was apparently funny, very, very funny to those long in the guild. Kenshin didn't get it.

None the less after his party's adventure in how to level up fast two days ago he had gotten an invitation to the guild Keel. As well as an increase of levels. From level 2 to 9 in one dungeon. But yesterday. Yesterday he met someone very interesting. His name was Ovan.

-The day before, in Mac Anu-

Kenshin was in Mac anu looking around for interesting people to put in his party. Then a man with a strange left arm and orange glasses arrived. "Greetings. My name is Ovan."

"Yeah hi." Kenshin said with no more than a glance. Then he saw the man's arm. "What's with your arm? I mean that's not a normal character design. Isn't it?"

"Ah. Well now aren't you an inquisitive one. You know I am interested in you."

"Really now." Kenshin said, more than a hint of distaste at where this conversation could go. Especially in real world terms.

"Yes. You are a special player. With stats far above normal. You may only have average player ability, but you get far better every day."

Kenshin blinked in shock, "How'd you know that!?!"

Ovan stepped aside to reveal benitora.

"Benitora, you know this guy!?!"

"Yeah that's about it." He said with an extremely loud yawn. "He wanted to know stuff about my first party with you and I told him."

"What you do that for!?!"

"Well I didn't give away anything that you would have to hack or research to find –yawn- out."

"Still…" Kenshin trailed as benitora yawned again. "You should get some sleep."

"So sue me, I came on at 3. AM to meet you. Now I'm going to sleep. Cause you're just mean." Benitora put his hand to his mouth in a yawn and then paused in the middle of it as he logged out.

"As you see I am well connected. Do you know who that man is?" Said Ovan with a small gesture to the now empty space that benitora had occupied.

"Well another player I would assume."

"Well he can be, he was right there admittedly. But in real life he works for CC corp. As a low level admin. Essentially it works out that his job is to play the world. So one key reason that guy is in Japan when he lives, and at least used to work, in America is because of his assignment."

"Assignment?" Kenshin said with an odd look at the player with the odd left arm.

"He claims that irregularities have been detected within the world. Similar to those from seven years ago. Now I can't tell you what those irregularities are, but he's confined to me that they may have something to do with what my guild, the twilight brigade is looking for."

"And that would be what?"

"An item which would turn the world end over end, an item with unlimited potential powers. An item called the Key to the twilight." Ovan said, a grin appearing on his face for some unknown reason.

"The key to the twilight. An item that grants the holder anything." Kenshin turned to look at the town around him.

"Perhaps. Perhaps it is just an especially rare item. Maybe it doesn't exist."

"WHAT! You look for an item you acknowledge may not exist!?!" Kenshin said very loudly with a turn to face Ovan once more.

"If it exists or not is not important. What matters is that while looking for it we treat the search for it as if it were real."

"Yeah well, if it's not real then what's the point!" Kenshin shouted as he turned away from Ovan once more arms crossed.

"If you have that attitude then you should just stop playing the world." Ovan said with a strange tone in his voice.

"What?" Kenshin phrased turning his head partway around.

"'the world' as in the game world, does not exist. Hence why should you participate in it. After all it's just a game. But since it's 'just a game' you play it to do things that cannot normally happen. Like looking for the key to the twilight. That, my friend, is the logic of the twilight brigade."

"So why do you show this odd interest in me?"

"Because. You are special. Your character is distinctly unique. And I feel that uniqueness will serve the brigade, and perhaps the whole of the world, very well in the future."

"Special?" Kenshin asked. "The whole world?" Kenshin asked no-one in particular his eyes widening and his volume increasing as he said it.

"Yes. And I feel your affecting the whole world will be related to finding the key to the twilight." Ovan said a knowing, almost evil grin appearing on his face. Kenshin was looking at his hands.

"The whole world. I could change the whole world." Kenshin seemed semi-shocked and in awe. "I really don't know…" Kenshin seemed genuine in speaking he really didn't know what he wanted to do, whether he wanted to wield this power or not.

"Well I doubt you will be forced into changing the world. But if you join the twilight brigade you'll have plenty of time to find out whether or not you wish to do everything that you can to see if you can change the world or not."

"I'll think about it."

"That's good enough for me." Ovan said. "Now if you will excuse me I have matters to attend to. Oh and here, the guild key, if you ever want to come by, even just to visit." Ovan handed kenshin a small card pass with the image of a grunty that made him think very much of Ovan on it. "Think it over. Take your time, I have no doubt that whatever decision you make it will be the right one."

Kenshin nodded and stored his item in his key items bag. "Don't worry I'll take your guild into thought."

-Present, minus a few minutes give or take-

At the time he had just said that, but then he saw something that made him change his mind. One day out soloing in a field a few levels too low for him he sliced up a few PK's and prepared to accept the thanks of the PK victims when they attacked him. Unable to deal with fighting six players close to his level on his own he did his best and even got one down. When he finally was at almost nothing suddenly one of the remaining PK's was hit by a large shot. It was definitely one from a steam gunner, a powerful steam gunner. With a quick skill trigger to finish off the other PK kenshin looked towards the spot where the shot had came from. He just saw a man with blue hair and an odd left arm leave.

"Ovan." He murmured. Then kenshin ran off to try and catch the guy. When he reached the chaos gate he found Ovan was long gone. Kenshin looked back at the field, unsure whether to abandon his progress or not. Then he decided to go, having gained a level in the field already.

Kenshin warped into Mac anu, and looked around. He was unable to find Ovan. Then he sat down and looked at the two guild keys he had. The keel key and the key for the twilight brigade. Like at the beginning of the chapter (there goes the fourth wall). He sat and stared at the pair for some time. "Keel is a large guild. Or supposedly will be at some point." Although that seraph character had been seen flying, actually flying with wings, around town doing stuff. Not all was guild related he would talk to N00bs and give them guidance, randomly discuss daily happening in the game with people and whatnot. Once he had walked past kenshin talking with some guy from the guild TaN. Kenshin had overhead the term, 'free trade' being used in that conversation during the time he joined the small group of watchers following the pair of seraph and Tawalaya. Finally with a flap of six wings that had suddenly appeared on his back he knocked the whole, then massive, following on it's back. And with a shout of 'back off' everyone did so. Save for one fool who was knocked into the canals of Mac anu.

"Still no matter what I'll just end up as another guy in the guild." Then he looked at the twilight brigade key. "The twilight brigade. A small personal guild. But with big enemies. TaN really makes this decision tough." He looked at the two. Then he remembered all he had heard about the two guilds. Keel had formed international enemies of guilds like kestrel, and, in some cases, guilds like moon tree around the world. In the case of kestrel-a-likes it was open warfare with raids on the guilds home occurring on the rare occasion. But still the kestrel like guilds never stood a chance. Seraph had been known to show up at every single guild raid and once had single-handedly stopped an invasion of over 100 players. With only one low level player in the area. A player like kenshin, very much like kenshin, same name similar character model, the whole deal. However that meant little, it was mostly about the guild raid that he had come, he was the guildmaster of an international guild and would thus spend little time on the sever even.

The twilight brigade. The guildmaster was the mysterious rich eccentric Ovan. Well no-one knew if he was rich, but he was eccentric and eccentric people are usually rich. This meant, at least, he was rich in the game. But still it was a small guild; kenshin was pretty sure there were no more than six members at the moment. And there was TaN to consider. Yeah, that made the decision much tougher.

"Now if only I could find not-a-set and pumpkin." Kenshin muttered to himself. "Maybe they could tell me what the guild is like. I wonder what area's they frequent…" Kenshin said going to the chaos gate.

Using the random area command kenshin flipped through area's for the delta server until he came to one at level nine. For a few moment he considered the fact that he would be alone in his venture until a familiar voice greeted him, "Oh, hey there kenshin, you're on early. Oh wait, thirteen hours I guess it's late for you." Kenshin turned around to see his old friend benitora standing behind him at the chaos gate. "I see you're planning on going somewhere, if it's somewhere with monsters why don't you take me?" A grin appeared on the player from a few time zones over face. "Its 7 a.m. me so I got a few hours before I have to do anything."

Kenshin looked at the fellow for a few minutes. He seemed to be evaluating whether or not he was worthy to come along. After a time he made his decision. "Fine come along you stupid American."

"STUPID AMERICAN!?!" Benitora began when the warping sequence interrupted him.

-Delta Confused troubled thinker-

Upon arriving in the field any hints impression or assumptions that the man had been ready to strangle the red haired blade brandier before him were non-existent. The player was looking at the sky. "Beautiful day isn't it." Benitora said with a chuckle. "Well outside it's rainy and cold. Damn November. Weather report says it might snow next week, that'll make the morning commute one hellish trip."

Kenshin motioned forwards and the pair walked on into the field. "Well you caught me in a talkative mood. One thing you'll learn about me is that when I want to talk you can say anything and I will provide my honest to goodness best answer. So anything on your mind lately."

"Monsters!" Kenshin said pulling out his sword and sneak attacking them.

Benitora didn't pay the comment any mind, calmly walking around whacking the two annoying monsters that followed him with his lance from time to time. By the time that Benitora got over there the monster kenshin had sneak attacked was long dead. And one of the monsters behind him was dead by kenshins hands too. With a sigh benitora impaled the remaining monster on his lance. It disappeared and the battle barrier did too.

"Really, I'll talk with you about anything." Benitora said while leaning on his lance. "God I just want to do something to keep my mind busy."

"I have a question about your character."

"Yeah?"

"What class is it, I've noticed that you physical attack stat's seem to be low for a lord partizan."

"Really now, and I've been trying to improve that stat actually."

"Answer the question." Kenshin growled at Benitora.

"Well fact is I'm an adept rogue."

"A what?" Kenshin said eyeing benitora suspiciously.

"Did you read the manual?" Benitora retorted while kenshin backed off murmured something that benitora took to be along the lines of 'no' and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah yes we have a real genius here. Well mister super brain let us explain an adept rogue. The world R:2 has 10 classes, not counting adept rogues. Adept rogues are able to use up to three of these classes. However they do not gain the general stat bonuses associated with the classes and they also improve their weapon level at a much slower rate."

"So if they suck that much why do people ever play as them?" Kenshin asked.

"YOU BE QUIET!" Benitora shouted. Then the gathered himself for a moment and calmed down. "People play as adept rogues because adept rogues have access to multiple classes. Imagine this, being a harvest cleric."

"I can't."

"Tomoe is one."

"Oh. I got it now."

"Now the key weakness of harvest clerics is their total and complete inability to attack. If you were an adept rogue who had unlocked their second class, the first being harvest cleric, the second being, oh let's say edge punisher, you are cornered by a Pk in the middle of a battle. You can't do a whole lot with that pathetic little staff you got so right before he bears down on you, you pull a massive broadsword and smash him to kingdom come."

"I see. I suppose there is an advantage to being an adept rogue. So what classes are you?"

"Lord Partizan, twin blade, blade brandier."

"So you gave me that example and you do nothing of the sort yourself."

"So sue me I don't like that healing stuff. At least I did learn repth by way of a scroll."

"Yeah sure." Kenshin and benitora stared off for a few moments then kenshin got up, "Well the monsters won't come to us if we stay here, at best we'll have to fight some Pk's. Let's get moving."

After beating a few other groups of monsters kenshin decided to ask another question. "So benitora. What is your job in the real world?"

"Well you are inquisitive. Fact is I work for CC corp. Actually…" Benitora trailed off with a smirk. "I was one of the programming assistants for this game. My job with CC corp. is to play the game and report all bugs I encounter to them, also I work at home for about a week at a time so my home computer is very advanced."

"How advanced?" Kenshin asked, now very curious.

"God." Benitora said sticking his index finger on his lip. "I can't say exactly how good in terms you'll understand if I go technical… but I actually have enough room to move the entire population of "the world" and move it to my computer.".

"REALLY!" Kenshin said amazed.

"Yeah, between what I've purchased myself, gifts from friends and what CC corp. has given me for my work I could do that. Or at least make a whole new server."

"Wow." _And more amazing Ovan was telling the truth about the guy. I don't know how he knows all this stuff but I have a feeling a guy who can store the world on his 'personal' computer would know something about Ovan._ "Well that was interesting, shall we get to the beast temple."

Benitora scanned the environment. "Believe the temple is that-a-way!" He said pointing in a direction. "**Let us get a move on then.**"

"What?"

"Oh nothing." Benitora said while sounding innocent.

_I may not be the best student but I know when I hear English. I wonder what was he saying… Odds are some stupid English curse or something._

Some time later the pair reached the beast temple. At the altar they kicked the box and got a prize of medium armor. Kenshin received this. In exchange Benitora got the question.

"One last question." Kenshin began.

"Hmm." Benitora responded while looking around.

"How do you know Ovan and what is Ovan like?"

For a moment benitora paused, he paused while looking up at the ceiling. Kenshin was no body language linguist, but he knew that he had hit something good with that question. "The ceiling lighting is interesting isn't it?" Benitora said looking up at the light that was coming down.

"Answer the question."

"Ovan. Ovan has been playing the game for a long time. One day, while assigned to this server earlier, I met him. Let me tell you he's an interesting person to talk to. Very educated and he knows a lot about the world."

"How did you meet him?"

"Well…" Benitora trailed. "I used to post in various forums about bugs within the game. Ovan happened to contact me and asked me to come meet him in a bugged area." For a moment he remembered, a library with lots of books, the girl, those black dots… Not for long, and not with very much interest in anything that happened that day. "Once we conversed I recognized Ovan as being a person with great intelligence, a fellow intellect you could say. Well I exchanged member addresses, and e-mail addresses and since then from time to time the two of us have been in contact at irregular intervals."

"When was the last time you contacted him?"

Benitora looked at kenshin like kenshin had grown three heads. "You remember when Ovan brought a very sleepy me out to meet you? That was the last time we were in contact yesterday. Or today for me rather."

Kenshin blinked and simply responded with an, "Oh."

"So I suppose for three, or rather four questions I get one. What's up with the sudden desire to know about me, Ovan and my relationship to him?" Benitora maneuvered to make himself eye level with kenshin. "And one more; what did Ovan tell you?"

"How!?!" Kenshin let out before he clamped his mouth shut.

"Let's just say I know Ovan pretty well."

"Um yea…" Kenshin looked at his feet for a few moments. "Well he told me that you were a low level admin whose job it is to play the game. He said also that you are investigating the world for irregularities."

"Well duh, that's my job."

"Ovan said they might be related to an item called the key to the twilight."

"Well I do look for the key to the twilight, even if it is mostly for personal reasons. But still the twilight brigade, Ovan's guild, a guild designed just to find the key, will pique the interest of any educated cc. Corp. Employee."

"Educated?" Kenshin murmured. Then Benitora turned around.

"Well let's go, I'm leveled up now so I really don't care about you." To prove his point he walked over to the warp panel and paused for a moment as he picked out whatever option it was that he wanted from the list that appeared for him. Then he warped out.

Kenshin stood by the warp gate staring for a few moments. Then two players came along when they saw him they drew their swords and prepared to do… well they got ready for something but he doubted it was good, so kenshin ran into town and then logged out for the day.

-End-


End file.
